'I had a good workout yesterday, I really have a lot of muscle pain! I can hardly move anymore. That'll probably be good.'
Muscle soreness is often used as an indication of a good workout. But what does muscle pain really mean?
There are two types of muscle pain. The first form of muscle pain is called acute/early muscle pain, which occurs during training, this is the form of muscle pain that you feel during training where your muscles can feel heavy or burning.
The second form of muscle pain, also called Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS), means delayed muscle pain. This is muscle soreness that occurs 24 to 48 hours after your workout, and can last up to 78 hours after the workout. You often feel DOMS after a heavy, intensive workout, or a new training method that your body is not yet used to.
During training you cause small damage within the cells of your muscles, the greater the damage, the more severe the muscle pain. The disadvantage of severe muscle pain is that you still suffer from it 2 to 3 days after your training and you cannot strain these muscles again.
Your body will eventually repair these muscle cells. But it is not beneficial for your results if you have (too) much muscle pain after every training. In fact, it is much more efficient to develop no muscle pain or only a little muscle pain so that you recover faster and can therefore train again faster.
In short: a lot of muscle pain does not mean that you have had an effective training.
Please note: DOMS is not necessarily 'bad' for your body. But it's not better than no muscle pain. What is useful for your own training progression is a well-founded periodization with progressively increasing the load. Do you need help with this? Let us know!
Yusuf Akbas
Enforce Master Trainer
yusuf@enforce.nl
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